Kurds and Turks war. In Syria, a new war: Turkey kills Kurds with the tacit consent of Russia

The withdrawal of American troops from Syria, promised by President Donald Trump, has been postponed to save the local Kurds. Kurdish militant groups played an important role in the fight against radical Islamists in Syria. And now Turkish troops are promising to crush the Kurds. For the Americans, the Kurdish YPG is a valuable ally in the fight against terrorists, and for the Turks, the Kurds themselves are terrorists.

There are approximately 40 million Kurds in the world. They are the poorest and most deprived people. The only big people deprived of their state.

And for a whole century no one was interested in his fate. In addition to human rights and humanitarian organizations.

An ardent supporter of the Kurds was the wife of French President Danielle Mitterrand:

“I keep a close eye on the fate of the Kurdish people. I saw in what unbearable conditions this persecuted people lives. Under the guise of fighting terrorism, the Turkish army is carrying out real state terror in the region. But my voice remains the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” Kurdish refugees take refuge from Turkish aircraft and artillery in mountain caves in the canton of Afrin. Photo: RIA Novosti

Promised but not delivered

The victors in the First World War divided the vast legacy of the Ottoman Empire rather hastily. Borders were drawn by eye, which gave rise to conflicts between neighbors. Syria, which was under French control, was transferred to the Golan Heights (because of them, a war with Israel would break out). Transjordan got territories east of the Jordan River, which the Palestinian Arabs consider their own.

And the Kurds, a more numerous people than the Palestinian Arabs, did not receive their own state at all.

And there was a moment when it seemed that the Kurds were close to luck. On August 10, 1920, the Entente forced Turkey to sign the Treaty of Sevres, which provided for the creation of an independent Kurdish state (Articles 62 and 64) on British-mandated territory in northern Iraq. But the treaty was not ratified by anyone except Italy, and did not last long. The Treaty of Lausanne, which replaced it, signed on July 24, 1923, no longer provided for autonomy, much less independence for the Kurds.

Kurdistan is divided between four countries - Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria. And none of them wants an independent Kurdish state to emerge. The countries in which the Kurds live are trying at all costs to prevent them from uniting. Their right to autonomy, even cultural autonomy, is denied.

Let's say there are about 6 million Kurds in Iran, 11% of the population. But the Islamic leadership considers Iran a mono-ethnic state. Followers of Ayatollah Khomeini claim that adherence to a single religion - Shiite Islam - is more important than ethnic differences.

Iranian intelligence agencies hunt Kurdish activists even abroad. Abdurrahman Qasemlou, leader of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, has taken refuge in Europe. The envoys of Tehran suggested that he meet in Vienna and improve relations. He arrived with two assistants, on July 13, 1989 they were shot from machine guns right on the street. The killers are gone.

His successor was killed in Berlin. Around midnight on September 18, 1992, two armed men broke into the back room of the Mykonos Greek restaurant and began shooting at the patrons: three were killed and a fourth was mortally wounded. All these were Kurds - opponents of the Iranian regime: the new chairman of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan Sadeq Sharafkandi, representatives of the party in Europe and a translator. The terrorists shouted in Farsi: "Sons of a whore!"

The German investigators have done a great job. It was established that the murder of the Kurds was the work of three Iranian departments at once - the Ministry of Intelligence and Security, the special forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the army counterintelligence ...

Mahabad Republic

Historically, the Kurds have been a natural ally of Russia, because Russia has often fought with Turkey, and the enemy of our enemies is our friend.

In Soviet times, the Kurds became an ally of Moscow as participants in the national liberation movement. In Azerbaijan, after the revolution, an autonomous Kurdish county was created, which went down in history under the name "Red Kurdistan". A Kurdish national theater and Kurdish schools appeared. But in 1930 the county was liquidated. The Kurds were expelled from the border areas.

During World War II, Soviet troops entered Iran. After the war, in the Kurdish-populated western part of the country, with the assistance of the Soviet army, an independent Kurdish People's Republic was proclaimed with its capital in the town of Mehabad. About two thousand fighters arrived from neighboring Iraq under the command of Mullah Mustafa Barzani.

On October 21, 1945, the commander of the troops of the newly created Baku Military District, General of the Army Ivan Maslennikov, and the first secretary of the Azerbaijan Central Committee, Mir Jafar Baghirov, reported to Moscow:

“In pursuance of the decision of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of October 8, 1945 on the issue of Iranian Azerbaijan and Northern Kurdistan, we carried out the following: 21 experienced operatives of the NKVD and NKGB of the Azerbaijan SSR were allocated, capable of organizing work to eliminate individuals and organizations that hinder the development of the autonomist movement in Iranian Azerbaijan. These same comrades must organize armed partisan detachments from the local population.”

The Mahabad Republic lasted 11 months, until the end of 1946. When the Soviet troops left the territory of Iran, it was doomed. The Shah's troops hanged the President of the Republic. Mullah Barzani, who served as commander-in-chief of the republican army, crossed the Soviet border with his supporters and lived in our country for 12 years.

"one. Consider it necessary to resettle a group of Iraqi Kurds living in six regions of the Uzbek SSR in the amount of 483 people, headed by Mullah Mustafa Barzani, to settle in one or two districts of the Tashkent region. 2. To oblige the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Uzbekistan, comrade Niyazov, to provide housing and work for Iraqi Kurds at the enterprises of the Sadsovkhoztrest of the Ministry of Food Industry; to take measures to improve the material and living conditions and medical care of the Iraqi Kurds, to organize among them political, educational and cultural work, as well as the study of agricultural technology by them. 3. Entrust the Ministry of State Security of the USSR (comrade Ignatiev) with monitoring and control over the implementation of this resolution and carrying out relevant work among the Iraqi Kurds of the group of Mullah Mustafa Barzani.

The son of Barzani Masud later said:

- My father and his compatriots in the Soviet Union were in the position of prisoners of war. After Stalin's death it became easier. Khrushchev himself received his father ...

Chemical Ali, Saddam's brother

In 1959, Barzani returned to his homeland - Iraq promised to provide its Kurds with equality. But already in 1961 war broke out again. Barzani settled in the north of the country, from where he led the fight against government troops. In 1966, Pravda's own correspondent Yevgeny Primakov was instructed to go to northern Iraq. Barzani hugged the Soviet journalist with the words: "The Soviet Union is my dad."

Barzani was very frank with Primakov. Therefore, Yevgeny Maksimovich's ciphers were highly appreciated in Moscow and asked to go back to Iraqi Kurdistan.

“From 1966 to 1970,” Primakov recalled, “I was the only Soviet representative who regularly met with Barzani. In the summer he lived in a hut, in the winter - in a dugout.

Kurds were promised autonomy in Iraq, the right to elect their own authorities, participation in the government. We agreed that a Kurd would become the vice-president of the country. On March 10, 1970, Mustafa Barzani signed the agreement, counting on the promised autonomy. On March 11, the new President of Iraq, General Hassan al-Bakr, read out the text of the agreement on radio and television. But the Kurds did not wait for the promise. On the border with neighboring Iran, an "Arab belt" was purposefully created. To change the demographic situation, Iraqis-Arabs were resettled there. And the government troops evicted the original inhabitants from Iraqi Kurdistan. In 1974, the Kurdish leaders felt that they had been deceived, and the armed struggle resumed.

Successive Iraqi regimes spoke in favor of solving the Kurdish problem, but invariably ended up starting to kill Kurds. Saddam Hussein ordered to punish the Kurds, killed more than a hundred thousand people in Iraqi Kurdistan. Saddam entrusted this to General Ali Hassan al-Majid. General al-Majid was Saddam's cousin and even looked like him. On his orders, Kurdish villages were treated with chemical warfare agents from helicopters.

The village of Khaladzhba was destroyed from the air, five thousand people died from the nerve gas. After that, the general received the nickname Chemical Ali.

Iraqi Kurdistan

During Operation Desert Storm in 1991, when the forces of the world community attacked Saddam Hussein, Iraqi Kurds (and there are more than five million of them) raised an uprising that covered 95% of the territory of Iraqi Kurdistan. But Saddam crushed the uprising, and drove the Kurds into the mountains. When Iraqi forces again used chemical weapons, US President George W. Bush ordered an intervention.

On April 7, 1991, Operation Solace was launched to ensure the safety of Kurdish refugees. The Americans defined a "security zone" that Iraqi troops were forbidden to enter. In accordance with UN Security Council Resolution No. 688, a "free area" was created under the tutelage of the US military. There, in the north of Iraq, about three million Kurds settled. They elected their parliament and formed a government.

In September 2017, more than three million residents of Iraqi Kurdistan took part in a referendum and voted for the creation of an independent state. But neither Iraq nor any other country recognized the referendum. The Kurdish state remains unrecognized.

“There are no Kurds in Turkey!”

Most Kurds in Turkey - at least 16 million. And half live in an underdeveloped southeastern region, engulfed in guerrilla warfare, which the authorities consider terrorism.

Ankara has always said that "in Turkey there is neither a Kurdish nation nor a Kurdish language, and the Kurds are part of the Turkic nation, the mountain Turks." The Kurdish language was banned. At the birth of a child, Turkish officials replaced the Kurdish name with a Turkish one.

In response, the Turkish Kurds formed the PKK on November 27, 1978. The goal is an independent state. The party has iron discipline and a strict hierarchy. Abdallah Ocalan became the leader of the party that adopted Marxist ideas and called on the Kurds to revolt. Both Kurds and Turks behaved equally cruelly. Kurdish militants carried out terrorist attacks in Turkish cities, sowing fear among the population. They attacked Turkish teachers, engineers, employees of state companies. Turkish regular troops staged punitive operations and cleansing of entire villages, the inhabitants of which were suspected of helping militants of the Kurdistan Workers' Party.

In 1980, after a military coup in Turkey, militant groups of Kurds led by Ocalan fled to Syria, where they were sheltered and allowed to establish their bases.

The states in which the Kurds live brutally suppress them. But willingly help other people's Kurds. For example, Iran helped the Iraqi Kurds because it was at enmity with Baghdad. And the Syrians favored the Turkish Kurds who fought against Turkey. Kurds also live in Syria - about four million. This is 15% of the population, but the Kurds were not considered a national minority, publications in the Kurdish language and distribution of works of national culture were prohibited. In a word, the Assad dynasty keeps its Kurds in a tight grip. And the Turkish Kurds were secretly helped, because the Assads love Turkish politicians even less than the Kurds.

But the Turkish defense minister said: we demand that Syria stop helping Kurdish terrorists. The chief of the general staff of the Turkish army spoke about the "undeclared war" and unveiled a plan to attack the Syrian troops. With the threat of war, Turkey forced Syria to back down and refuse to support the PKK. Abdallah Ocalan fled from Syria to Russia, counting on the traditional support of Moscow.

Asylum denied

In November 1998, the State Duma voted in favor of granting Ocalan political asylum. However, Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov opposed this. He believed that relations with Turkey were more important for the Russian government, and even more so, Moscow did not want to support the Kurdish separatists at the time of the military operation in Chechnya.

Equally unsuccessfully, the PKK leader sought asylum in Italy and Greece. In February 1999, the Turks arrested Ocalan.

Opinions were divided. Some considered him a terrorist, a criminal, they said that his hands were covered in blood and that he should be in the dock. Others called him the leader of the national liberation movement and asked him to take into account the plight of the Kurds. The Kurds themselves say that in the eyes of the people, Ocalan is the personification of the centuries-old dream of a strong leader. He was sentenced to death, which was commuted to life imprisonment.

The brutal war against the Kurds prevented the transformation of Turkey into a modern state and ruined the reputation of the Turkish military. But in 2013, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then prime minister, promised to give the Kurds more rights. In return, the imprisoned leader of the PKK, Ocalan, ordered his fighters to stop the armed struggle with Turkey, which had claimed more than forty thousand lives in three decades, and declared that equality in rights would be won exclusively by political means. Erdogan then yearned for the support of the Kurds in the elections.

But then events began in Syria. Islamic terrorists killed Yazidi Kurds. Kurdish detachments desperately resisted the jihad militants and played a significant role in this war. In Syria, torn by civil war, they won back the territory for the future state. But Turkey is determined to prevent the Syrian Kurds from creating - following the example of the Iraqi ones - their own state formation and intends to defeat the Kurdish detachments in the north-east of the country after the withdrawal of American troops.

US national security adviser John Bolton said Washington will protect its Kurdish allies in Syria. Turkish President Erdogan, in response, refused to meet with him. All this means that the fighting in Syria will continue. And the Kurds will not soon find their own state.

The territory of historical Kurdistan is incredibly rich in natural resources, especially oil, but the Kurds live in poverty. They are offended when they are considered nomads, highlanders, pastoralists, deprived of an independent culture and national identity. In fact, say the Kurds, we are a people with a rich and diverse culture, although we are everywhere considered strangers and forced to vegetate at the lowest rung of the social ladder. And why are we worse than the Turks, Arabs, Persians, other peoples?

The Kurds are convinced that they are left to the mercy of fate and can only rely on themselves. More precisely, the power of their weapons. They believe that only armed struggle will help them gain independence. Kurds are good warriors. But they are not at war with the faint-hearted Americans or Europeans who keep count of every death, but with the Turks, Iranians, Iraqis. Who will win this war of attrition?

The less attention the world pays to the Kurds, this persecuted people, the stronger the position of those who believe that only terror will force the world to pay attention to them and help them. Nothing more optimistic, unfortunately, is impossible to say.

The confrontation between Turkey and the Kurdish national movement continues to gain momentum. As reported by RIA "", in the city of Diyarbakir in the south-east of Turkey, 120 km from the Syrian border, there are again real battles between government troops and Kurdish activists. Moreover, this is by no means a banal firefight from small arms between the rebels and the police, as has repeatedly happened before. Heavy machine guns and artillery were used in the clash. The spread of open and such a large-scale armed confrontation to Diyarbakir is an alarming sign for the Turkish government.

City guerilla in the old fortress

Recall that Diyarbakir is not just a city, it is the administrative center of Diyarbakir and the actual capital of Turkish Kurdistan. However, as early as the beginning of the 20th century, the city had a large Armenian population. Armenians made up over 35% of the population of Diyarbakir, and together with the Assyrians made the city more than half Christian. After the tragedy of 1915, the entire Armenian and Assyrian population of the city was destroyed or forced to leave their homes. Of the eleven Christian churches in the city (Armenian, Assyrian, Chaldean), only one is currently functioning. After the expulsion of the Armenian-Assyrian population, Kurds remained in the city, which lost half of its population. Currently, the population of the "capital" of Turkish Kurdistan is about 844 thousand people. For a long time, Diyarbakir has been one of the main centers of political instability in the southeastern part of Turkey. It is here that the PKK cells, which in July 2015 resumed armed resistance to the Turkish regime of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have strong support. The historical district of Diyarbakir Sur has turned into a real arena of clashes between Turkish police and army units on the one hand, and detachments of supporters of the Kurdistan Workers' Party on the other side in the last month. As a result of military clashes, which are conducted with the use of artillery, 50,000 residents of the district were forced to leave their homes. In fact, this is more than 2/3 of its population - after all, only 70 thousand people live in the Sur region. The old center of Diyarbakır, with its tangled streets, is the perfect place for an "urban guerrilla", a guerrilla war in the centuries-old city. This is a fortress surrounded by walls, with narrow passages and nooks and crannies, where it is very easy to hide, especially for those who know all the "hidden places" of the ancient citadel from childhood. Naturally, most of the Kurdish population of the city sympathizes with the activists of the PKK, so the police and the army cannot count on the help of local residents. On the other hand, after all, the locals are well aware that the police and the military will not spare them, although the Kurds are also citizens of Turkey. Therefore, residents of the central district of Diyarbakır began to leave their homes immediately after clashes between government forces and rebels intensified in January 2016.

Diyarbakir is a strategically important base

The importance of the situation in Diyarbakir cannot be overestimated. After all, this is not only a “problematic” Kurdish city, and not even only the capital of Turkish Kurdistan. Diyarbakir is of strategic importance for the Turkish government, first of all, not even administrative-political, but military. Firstly, Diyarbakir is home to the largest base of the Turkish air force, including the headquarters of the Second Tactical Command of the Turkish Air Force. F-16 multi-purpose aircraft and army helicopters are based at the airfields. It is from here that the bulk of the flights of the Turkish military aviation take place. Secondly, the city is located, as we wrote above, 120 km. from the border with Syria. In conditions when an armed invasion of Turkey into Syrian territory is about to begin, Diyarbakir will automatically become the main base for the preparation and implementation of this invasion. At one time, Diyarbakir was considered by the NATO command as one of the most important outposts on the southern borders of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union collapsed, but military bases continued to exist. Since 2015, they have been actively used in the course of the American air operation against ISIS (an organization banned in Russia). Therefore, not only Turkish aviation units are deployed at the air base in Diyarbakir, but also personnel and helicopters of American aviation. US military transport planes arrive at the Diyarbakir airfield with supplies for US troops in the region. Also at the base in Diyarbakir, NATO command deployed electronic intelligence systems that monitored the Middle East, the Caucasus and the Russian Federation. That is, in the system of tracking the missile activity of the Soviet Union and Russia by NATO, the base in Diyarbakir played and is playing a crucial role. And now, in the immediate vicinity of such an important militarily object, there are battles.

A round-the-clock curfew has been introduced in the city, and journalists and representatives of international humanitarian organizations are forbidden to appear on its territory. While Kurdish rebels defend the historical citadel of Sur, and more than ten thousand Turkish soldiers and policemen try to crush their resistance and dismantle barricades and barriers, about 2 thousand Kurdish women took to the rally in Diyarbakir. Among the slogans is "Long live Sur's resistance!". A battle took place two kilometers from the place of the rally, but this did not frighten the brave activists. The process of creating detachments of the People's Self-Defense Forces (YPS) continues on the territory of South-East Turkey. Thus, on February 2, 2016, a detachment of the People's Self-Defense Forces (YPS) was created in the Gever (Yuksekova) district. He became a reinforcement for the already existing detachments in Sura, Cizre, Nusaybin and Kerboran. The detachment's spokesman, Erish Gever, stressed that the youth of Gever sees it as their duty to protect their land and will avenge the death of every compatriot. Meanwhile, the Turkish command in December 2015 imposed a curfew on the territory of a number of Kurdish regions in the southeastern part of the country. Among them are the historical center of Diyarbakır Sur, Cizre and Silopi in Sirnak province, Nusaybin and Dargechit in Mardin province. Military-police operations in Turkish Kurdistan, according to representatives of the Turkish command, since mid-December last year, have led to the destruction of 750 Kurdish activists. However, the Kurds themselves claim that most of the people killed by the Turkish military are civilians. Perhaps we should rather lean towards the latest version, especially since it is it that is increasingly being discussed outside of Turkey. In particular, international organizations are already expressing concern about the situation in Turkish Kurdistan. In an effort to protect Ankara from accusations from the international community of involvement in the massacres of civilians, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that it was the Kurdistan Workers' Party that was using the unarmed population as a "human shield", while the Turkish government was "fighting terrorists."

Erdogan takes risks and is nervous

It seems that ancient Sur is becoming the epicenter of a grandiose explosion, the consequences of which, not only for the Erdogan regime, but for Turkey as a whole, can be catastrophic. The very possibility of destabilizing the situation in the capital of Turkish Kurdistan to such a level that Kurdish rebels are exchanging fire with the Turkish military a few kilometers from the most important base of the Turkish armed forces and NATO as a whole, says a lot about the degree of control of the government of Recep Erdogan over the situation in the country. In fact, since the Turkish government, after a series of rather gross provocations, launched an armed aggression against the Kurdistan Workers' Party and the Kurdish population of the southeastern regions of the country, canceling the ceasefire reached with such difficulty, the country has been on the verge of a real civil war. Now, after the events in Diyarbakir, it can be confidently stated that this civil war is going on, and, obviously, its intensity will only increase. It remains to be seen whether Turkey will be able to organize a full-fledged invasion of Syria if the fighting takes place on its own territory, and in close proximity to the largest military base.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had only recently been convinced of an unconditional victory over the “terrorists,” as he invariably calls the Kurdish national movement, also became seriously nervous. Speaking at the World Tourism Forum held on February 6, 2016, Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized the policies of Western countries. The Turkish President openly stated that Western countries are arming militants not only of the Syrian Democratic Union Party of Kurdistan, but also of the Kurdistan Workers' Party. According to the Turkish president, the weapons that are in the hands of the Kurdish rebels (Erdogan, of course, used the word "terrorists") are made in the West. In fact, by doing so, the Turkish president accused Western countries of supporting the Kurdistan Workers' Party. This is an emotional statement that shows the extent of the Turkish president's confusion.

In another statement, Erdogan made claims not to anyone, but to the United States of America itself. The anger of the head of the Turkish state was caused by the recent visit of US Presidential Envoy Brett McGurk to the city of Kobani. As you know, Kobani is the actual capital of Rojava - Syrian Kurdistan. The Democratic Union party completely controls the situation in Kobani and, naturally, the representative of the American president held talks in the city with the leaders of this organization. Meanwhile, Erdogan defines the Democratic Union Party as a terrorist organization and considers it a subsidiary of the PKK. If the American envoy visits "terrorists", from Erdogan's point of view, then he thereby legitimizes them, recognizes the possibility of negotiations and even cooperation with them. “Look, one of the national security officials from [U.S. President Barack] Obama's circle during the Syrian talks in Geneva gets up and goes to Kobane. And there he receives a commemorative plaque from the so-called general. How can we trust you? Am I your partner or terrorists in Kobane?” Erdogan asks. In these words of the Turkish president, there is a clear resentment for the behavior of senior NATO partners, and in the subtext - fear for the possibility of losing US support. After all, without it, left face to face with numerous external and internal problems, Erdogan's regime will be doomed to a fiasco. And no alliances with Saudi Arabia or Qatar will help him. Moreover, American interest in the “Kurdish project” is growing every month, which, especially in the context of the Syrian situation, seems to American politicians more promising than the boring partnership with dubious Erdogan.

Kurdistan seeks independence

The Kurds are the story of the struggle for independence. The Kurds have been waging the most fierce struggle for independence since the middle of the 20th century - in Turkey, Iraq, and Syria. At present, the Iraqi Kurds are doing the best. They managed to create a virtually independent, although formally part of Iraq, their own state - with its own system of government, its own armed formations, which effectively repelled the onslaught of terrorists. To a lesser extent, the Syrian Kurds are lucky - but they also managed to keep Rojava under their control, which has actually become the center of a social experiment unique for the modern Middle East to create a democratic self-governing society. As for the Turkish Kurds, despite the fact that they have been waging an armed and political struggle for their rights for several decades, they are in the least advantageous defeat. They are confronted by a too serious adversary - nevertheless, Turkey has powerful special services, a large police force and an army. In addition, Turkey is a member of NATO, and if the Iraqi Kurds once found the support of the world community in the fight against Saddam Hussein, and the Syrian Kurds evoke sympathy as fighters on the front line in the fight against terrorism, then it is more difficult with the Turkish Kurds. The US and the EU do not want to drastically spoil relations with Turkey, although they are becoming more and more strained. Therefore, while European and American politicians do not risk openly opposing Erdogan's anti-Kurdish policy, at best they address their criticism exclusively to the Syrian issue.

The main military-political force acting in Turkish Kurdistan from the most uncompromising positions is the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which has its own armed formations - the People's Self-Defense Forces. It is their fighters who are fighting against the Turkish government troops in Diyarbakir and other areas of the southeastern provinces of Turkey. The oldest Kurdish military-political organization, the Kurdistan Workers' Party is considered by the Turkish authorities solely as a terrorist organization. Therefore, Ankara has never considered negotiating with the PKK. On the other hand, European countries are gradually changing their attitude towards the Kurdistan Workers' Party, especially after the party began to take an active part in organizing resistance to terrorists in Syria. At the same time, any hints about the need for negotiations with the PKK, about the termination of the attitude towards this party as a terrorist organization, cause a sharply negative reaction from the Turkish government. Therefore, the United States still prefers to refrain from contacts with the PKK, although it is beginning to build positive relations with the Syrian Kurds, which also infuriates official Ankara. As for Iraqi Kurdistan, it enjoys the open support of the United States and EU countries, which supply weapons to the Kurdish Peshmerga militia units and organize their training. By the way, the Turkish leadership has a much more loyal attitude towards the Iraqi Kurds. First of all, the reason for this is the lack of developed contacts between the ruling elite of Iraqi Kurdistan and the leadership of the PKK. If the Syrian Kurds and the PKK are in fact one political movement, then Iraqi Kurdistan is a separate center of the Kurdish national movement.

On February 3, 2016, the President of the Autonomous Region of Iraqi Kurdistan, Masoud Barzani, stated that favorable conditions have now developed for the creation of an independent Kurdish state on the territory of Iraqi Kurdistan. According to Barzani, the Kurdish people can determine their own future in the upcoming referendum. For Turkey, the creation of an independent Kurdish state, albeit on the territory of the former Iraqi Kurdistan, will be another blow. Even though the Erdogan regime has developed a partnership with Barzani. After all, Ankara is very sensitive to any discussions on the possibility of creating a Kurdish state in the Middle East. Turkish leaders are well aware that even if this state does not affect the territory of Turkey itself, but arises in Iraq or Syria, it will become an example for Turkish Kurds. In addition, the entire post-Ottoman and post-colonial map of the Middle East will be redrawn - after all, for many centuries the Kurds, forty million people with an ancient history, were deprived of their own state. According to any concept of justice, they have every right to live in their own country - a huge people with their own language, ancient culture, traditions, including religious ones.

Some analysts compare the significance of the hypothetical emergence of an independent Kurdistan for the Middle East with the emergence of the State of Israel. Indeed, in the event of the sovereignization of Iraqi and Syrian Kurdistan, the statehood of the Middle East will no longer be exclusively Arab. And if a state emerges that unites all the Kurds of the region, then a new powerful state with a population of several tens of millions of people will appear on the political map of the Middle East, with which Turkey, Iran, and the Arab countries will have to build relations. By the way, in Turkey, the Kurdish population not only lives compactly in the southeast of the country, but also inhabits the central regions, as well as large cities. Of course, in the event of the appearance of a large Kurdistan, Turkey will have a new neighbor, the complexity of relations with which is guaranteed. Moreover, this neighbor will have powerful levers of influence in Turkey itself - in the face of the multi-million Kurdish community. After all, the same Kurdish youth of Istanbul or Ankara, who go to protest rallies or arrange clashes with the police, will not go anywhere. By the way, in the countries of Western Europe there are numerous Kurdish diasporas, which are also capable of lobbying the interests of an independent Kurdish state.

Kurds and Russia

For Russia, the "Kurdish project" is also interesting. And here an important task is to seize the strategic initiative from the United States, to prevent American diplomacy from completely “wrapping up” the Kurdish national movement and putting it at the service of American interests in the region. Moreover, the current situation in Russian-Turkish relations suggests, as a logical continuation, Russia's transition to providing real assistance to the Kurdish national movement. If before, not wanting to spoil relations with its "ally" Turkey (although which one, if we recall the events in the North Caucasus of the 1990s - 2000s, is it our ally?), Russia was in no hurry to openly demonstrate its sympathy for the Kurdish national movement, now is the best time for it. It is known that on February 10, 2016, an official representative office of Syrian Kurdistan is to open in Moscow. Representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and leaders of the country's leading political parties have been invited to the opening ceremony of the representative office. The representative office will legally have the status of a public organization, but in fact it will perform the functions of a diplomatic mission. By the way, the creation of the representative office did not come as a surprise - in the fall of 2015, this intention was voiced by the delegation of Syrian Kurdistan that visited Moscow. Considering that the Democratic Union Party, which is the leader in Syrian Kurdistan, is ideologically and practically oriented towards the Kurdistan Workers' Party and maintains close ties with the latter, the opening of the representative office will also be a demonstration of Russia's position in relation to the modern Turkish leadership. However, Russia has always advocated the active participation of the Syrian Kurds in the peace process. The Turkish government opposes negotiations with the Syrian Kurds, which is making every effort to ensure that the Syrian Kurds, closely associated with the PKK, do not become a full-fledged subject of the negotiation process at the international level. According to Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Gennady Gatilov, Russia "is making every effort to include (Syrian Kurds) in inter-Syrian negotiations." In addition to Moscow, it also became known about the upcoming opening of diplomatic missions of Syrian Kurdistan in France, Germany and Switzerland. Of course, this will also cause an extremely negative reaction from the Turkish side.

It should also be recalled that at the end of December 2015, the leader of the Democratic Party of the Peoples of Turkey, Selahattin Demirtas, visited Moscow. This charismatic young politician is the leader of Turkey's largest leftist and pro-Kurdish party. He has always occupied positions emphatically opposed to Erdogan. So it is now - Demirtas criticizes Turkey's position on the Syrian conflict, negatively assesses the attack on the Russian plane and the deterioration of relations with Russia. At the same time, although Demirtas emphasizes that his party has nothing to do with the PKK, this is apparently done in order to prevent possible consequences in the form of a ban on the party by the Turkish authorities (and such voices are already being heard from the extreme right Turkish political spectrum). In fact, it is the activists of the Peoples' Democratic Party that form the basis of the mass peaceful protests that are being carried out throughout Turkey against Erdogan's policies and in support of the Kurdish people. Needless to say, Demirtaş's visit to Moscow, which was received at a very high level, meant that Russia wanted to establish cooperation with the Turkish opposition. The real opposition in Turkey is the left and the Kurds, as a rule, acting as a single block. It is they who are represented by the party headed by Demirtas. The official reason for Demirtas's visit to Moscow was the opening of the Society of Kurdish Businessmen. This is another nuance. As you know, the economic sanctions imposed by Russia against Turkey have seriously hit Turkish business. Accordingly - and in terms of the business that ethnic Kurds kept - after all, despite their nationality and political sympathies, in legal terms they remain citizens of Turkey. Meanwhile, many Kurdish businessmen are sponsors of Kurdish national organizations, including the Kurdistan Workers' Party, the Democratic Union of Syrian Kurdistan. A blow to their economic positions is also a blow to the supply of Kurdish organizations in the Middle East, which in turn is unprofitable for Russia. Therefore, the distinction between Turkish and Kurdish business itself has become an urgent task for Russia. But if Russia creates special conditions for Kurdish businessmen, then in fact this will mean its favorable attitude towards the PKK. In any case, the growing confrontation with the Kurds has already plunged entire regions of Turkey into civil war. Given the large Kurdish population in other regions of the state, it is possible that, following the southeast, cities in the central or western parts of Turkey may seriously “flare”. Much also depends on the nature of military supplies. If more serious weapons, including mine explosives, light artillery, anti-tank systems, fall into the hands of the PKK, then the civil war in the southeast of the country will become much larger. It is possible that Erdogan's government will "get stuck" in it for a long time, which may also be the beginning of the end of the political regime that exists in modern Turkey.

For Russia, support for the Kurdish national movement may be an adequate response to the anti-Russian policy of the Erdogan regime. It is through the activation of the Kurdish national movement that it is possible not only to achieve the solution of such tasks as the self-determination of Turkish Kurds, the protection of Syrian Kurdistan from the threat from terrorist organizations, but also to significantly influence the political regime in Turkey. Having been “bogged down” in an armed confrontation with the PKK units, the Turkish government will no longer have enough resources to support, at least so seriously, the militants in Syria.

Kurdish revolution in the Middle East

If we turn to the analysis of Recep Erdogan's policy towards the "Kurdish issue", we can see that it has become radically tougher over the past year and a half. As you know, from 2012 to 2015. the truce was in effect, which was announced by the Kurdistan Workers' Party, thereby trying to stop the almost forty years of armed confrontation between the Kurds and the Turkish government forces. Although Erdogan has certainly always remained a Turkish nationalist and a staunch opponent of any agreement with the PKK and liberalization of policy towards the Kurds, until recently he preferred to act by political means. But the situation in Syria brought to naught even those indulgences that were allowed in Turkish domestic policy in 2012-2014. If earlier Erdogan tried to integrate the Kurds into Turkish society, taking as a basis the model of common Islamic identity and appealing to the common Islamic identity of the Turkish and Kurdish peoples, then the development of armed confrontation in Syria, in which one of the main parties to the conflict was precisely the fundamentalist opposition to Assad, closely connected with the Turkish secret services, forced him to reconsider his policy. Moreover, the Kurdish organizations of Turkey stubbornly did not want to follow Erdogan in the framework of his conservative-fundamentalist project. Moreover, in the Kurdish national movement, those forces that in every possible way demonstrate their non-religiousness and "secularism" have long prevailed. Both the Kurdistan Workers' Party in Turkey and the Democratic Union in Syrian Kurdistan are secular left-wing organizations that are extremely negative about religious fundamentalism.

The ground for hatred towards fundamentalists has only become stronger after the atrocities committed by militants of Syrian-Iraqi radical organizations in Kurdish and Assyrian villages. Behind the armed confrontation between the Kurdish militias and militants of religious extremist organizations, an intercultural conflict has also become increasingly visible. The Kurdish national movement is unique in the contemporary Middle East. First, unlike all social revolutionary movements in the Middle East and North Africa, it is emphatically secular, if not anti-religious. Secularism for the Kurdish national movement plays a huge role. The Kurdistan Workers' Party and the Democratic Union of Syrian Kurdistan emphasize their non-religious nature in every possible way. By the way, the religious situation in Kurdish society has always been very complex: among the Kurds there are Sunni Muslims, there are Alevis (not to be confused with Alawites), there are followers of the Ahl-e-Haqq (ali-illahi) movement. Finally, there are Yezidis (some of the Yezidis, however, do not consider themselves Kurds), who profess the ancient Kurdish religion Yezidism. For the Kurdistan Workers Party and the Kurdish national movement as a whole, the Kurdish identity is a priority, religious issues are not given attention. Moreover, Christians - Armenians, Arabs and Assyrians, and Jews - most often, these are Kurdish Jews - "lahluhs" are fighting in the detachments of the Kurdish militia. Finally, among a certain part of the Kurdish intelligentsia, there is a tendency and a movement to return to Yezidism or Zoroastrianism, which, according to the supporters of this process, are more in line with the Kurdish mentality. For the Turkish religious fundamentalist and conservative Erdogan, the influence of these tendencies is unacceptable - his war against the Kurdish national resistance is also a war for the interests of Turkish religious fundamentalism and the neo-Ottoman project.

Secondly, for the traditional cultures of the Middle Eastern peoples, the significant place that women occupy in the Kurdish movement is probably shocking. In the ideology of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, issues of equal rights for women play a colossal role. It is no coincidence that women and girls are most often seen in photographs as fighters of the Kurdish militia. They make up to 40% of the personnel of the People's Self-Defense Detachments. But their participation in the armed confrontation is advertised for another reason - ideological. Women's equality, declared by the Kurdish movement, seems to be an alternative to the bleak future that women can expect if religious extremist organizations win. That is why the national liberation war of the Syrian Kurds has just a “female face”. Such a component of the ideology of the Kurdish movement as an orientation towards self-government is also very correctly chosen. By this, the Kurds emphasize their adherence to democratic ideals, which automatically attracts to their side, as they would say before, "the entire progressive public." To some extent, the democracy of the Kurds is much more similar to democracy than the political systems of European states (there are no comparisons with Turkey at all). Naturally, the organization of Kurdish self-defense units, the very life in the settlements controlled by them, the democratic system of government - all these factors contribute to the incredible growth in the popularity of the Kurdish national movement among the same European and American leftists. There are numerous examples of the participation of Europeans and Americans as volunteers in the fighting in Syrian Kurdistan - in the ranks of the Kurdish people's self-defense units.

As for the policy of Recep Erdogan, by his principled refusal of any negotiations with the Kurdish national movement, by his militant chauvinism, he creates problems, first of all, for Turkey. Already, these problems are becoming more and more obvious. Erdogan managed to quarrel with all his neighbors - Russia, Syria, he also has strained relations with Iran and Iraq. Against the backdrop of Erdogan's policy towards the Kurds in Turkey and, moreover, in Syria, he is beginning to cause increasing irritation among European and American leaders.

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The withdrawal of American troops from Syria, promised by President Donald Trump, has been postponed to save the local Kurds. Kurdish militant groups played an important role in the fight against radical Islamists in Syria. And now Turkish troops are promising to crush the Kurds. For the Americans, the Kurdish YPG is a valuable ally in the fight against terrorists, and for the Turks, the Kurds themselves are terrorists.

There are approximately 40 million Kurds in the world. They are the poorest and most deprived people. The only big people deprived of their state.

And for a whole century no one was interested in his fate. In addition to human rights and humanitarian organizations.

An ardent supporter of the Kurds was the wife of French President Danielle Mitterrand:

“I keep a close eye on the fate of the Kurdish people. I saw in what unbearable conditions this persecuted people lives. Under the guise of fighting terrorism, the Turkish army is carrying out real state terror in the region. But my voice remains the voice of one crying in the wilderness.”

Kurdish refugees take refuge from Turkish aircraft and artillery in mountain caves in the canton of Afrin. Photo: RIA Novosti

Promised but not delivered

The victors in the First World War divided the vast legacy of the Ottoman Empire rather hastily. Borders were drawn by eye, which gave rise to conflicts between neighbors. Syria, which was under French control, was transferred to the Golan Heights (because of them, a war with Israel would break out). Transjordan got territories east of the Jordan River, which the Palestinian Arabs consider their own.

And the Kurds, a more numerous people than the Palestinian Arabs, did not receive their own state at all.

And there was a moment when it seemed that the Kurds were close to luck. On August 10, 1920, the Entente forced Turkey to sign the Treaty of Sevres, which provided for the creation of an independent Kurdish state (Articles 62 and 64) on British-mandated territory in northern Iraq. But the treaty was not ratified by anyone except Italy, and did not last long. The Treaty of Lausanne, which replaced it, signed on July 24, 1923, no longer provided for autonomy, much less independence for the Kurds.

Kurdistan is divided between four countries - Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria. And none of them wants an independent Kurdish state to emerge. The countries in which the Kurds live are trying at all costs to prevent them from uniting. Their right to autonomy, even cultural autonomy, is denied.

Let's say there are about 6 million Kurds in Iran, 11% of the population. But the Islamic leadership considers Iran a mono-ethnic state. Followers of Ayatollah Khomeini claim that adherence to a single religion - Shiite Islam - is more important than ethnic differences.

Iranian intelligence agencies hunt Kurdish activists even abroad. Abdurrahman Qasemlou, leader of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, has taken refuge in Europe. The envoys of Tehran suggested that he meet in Vienna and improve relations. He arrived with two assistants, on July 13, 1989 they were shot from machine guns right on the street. The killers are gone.

His successor was killed in Berlin. Around midnight on September 18, 1992, two armed men broke into the back room of the Mykonos Greek restaurant and began shooting at the patrons: three were killed and a fourth was mortally wounded. All these were Kurds - opponents of the Iranian regime: the new chairman of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan Sadeq Sharafkandi, representatives of the party in Europe and a translator. The terrorists shouted in Farsi: "Sons of a whore!"

The German investigators have done a great job. It was established that the murder of the Kurds was the work of three Iranian departments at once - the Ministry of Intelligence and Security, the special forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the army counterintelligence ...

Mahabad Republic

Historically, the Kurds have been a natural ally of Russia, because Russia has often fought with Turkey, and the enemy of our enemies is our friend.

In Soviet times, the Kurds became an ally of Moscow as participants in the national liberation movement. In Azerbaijan, after the revolution, an autonomous Kurdish county was created, which went down in history under the name "Red Kurdistan". A Kurdish national theater and Kurdish schools appeared. But in 1930 the county was liquidated. The Kurds were expelled from the border areas.

During World War II, Soviet troops entered Iran. After the war, in the western part of the country inhabited by Kurds - with the assistance of the Soviet army - an independent Kurdish People's Republic was proclaimed with its capital in the town of Mehabad. About two thousand fighters arrived from neighboring Iraq under the command of Mullah Mustafa Barzani.

Mustafa Barzani. Wikipedia

On October 21, 1945, the commander of the troops of the newly created Baku Military District, General of the Army Ivan Maslennikov, and the first secretary of the Azerbaijan Central Committee, Mir Jafar Baghirov, reported to Moscow:

“In pursuance of the decision of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of October 8, 1945 on the issue of Iranian Azerbaijan and Northern Kurdistan, we carried out the following: 21 experienced operatives of the NKVD and NKGB of the Azerbaijan SSR were allocated, capable of organizing work to eliminate individuals and organizations that hinder the development of the autonomist movement in Iranian Azerbaijan. These same comrades must organize armed partisan detachments from the local population.”

The Mahabad Republic lasted 11 months, until the end of 1946. When the Soviet troops left the territory of Iran, it was doomed. The Shah's troops hanged the President of the Republic. Mullah Barzani, who served as commander-in-chief of the republican army, crossed the Soviet border with his supporters and lived in our country for 12 years.

"one. Consider it necessary to resettle a group of Iraqi Kurds living in six regions of the Uzbek SSR in the amount of 483 people, headed by Mullah Mustafa Barzani, to settle in one or two districts of the Tashkent region. 2. To oblige the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Uzbekistan, comrade Niyazov, to provide housing and work for Iraqi Kurds at the enterprises of the Sadsovkhoztrest of the Ministry of Food Industry; to take measures to improve the material and living conditions and medical care of the Iraqi Kurds, to organize among them political, educational and cultural work, as well as the study of agricultural technology by them. 3. Entrust the Ministry of State Security of the USSR (comrade Ignatiev) with monitoring and control over the implementation of this resolution and carrying out relevant work among the Iraqi Kurds of the group of Mullah Mustafa Barzani.

The son of Barzani Masud later said:

My father and his compatriots in the Soviet Union found themselves in the position of prisoners of war. After Stalin's death it became easier. Khrushchev himself received his father ...

Chemical Ali, Saddam's brother

In 1959, Barzani returned to his homeland - Iraq promised to give its Kurds equality. But already in 1961 war broke out again. Barzani settled in the north of the country, from where he led the fight against government troops. In 1966, Pravda's own correspondent Yevgeny Primakov was instructed to go to northern Iraq. Barzani hugged the Soviet journalist with the words: "The Soviet Union is my dad."

Barzani was very frank with Primakov. Therefore, Yevgeny Maksimovich's ciphers were highly appreciated in Moscow and asked to go back to Iraqi Kurdistan.

“From 1966 to 1970,” Primakov recalled, “I was the only Soviet representative who met with Barzani on a regular basis. In the summer he lived in a hut, in the winter - in a dugout.

Kurds were promised autonomy in Iraq, the right to elect their own authorities, participation in the government. We agreed that a Kurd would become the vice-president of the country. On March 10, 1970, Mustafa Barzani signed the agreement, counting on the promised autonomy. On March 11, the new President of Iraq, General Hassan al-Bakr, read out the text of the agreement on radio and television. But the Kurds did not wait for the promise. On the border with neighboring Iran, an "Arab belt" was purposefully created. To change the demographic situation, Iraqis-Arabs were resettled there. And the government troops evicted the original inhabitants from Iraqi Kurdistan. In 1974, the Kurdish leaders felt that they had been deceived, and the armed struggle resumed.

A Kurd stands near his house, destroyed by an Iranian shell. Photo: RIA Novosti

Successive Iraqi regimes spoke in favor of solving the Kurdish problem, but invariably ended up starting to kill Kurds. Saddam Hussein ordered to punish the Kurds, killed more than a hundred thousand people in Iraqi Kurdistan. Saddam entrusted this to General Ali Hassan al-Majid. General al-Majid was Saddam's cousin and even looked like him. On his orders, Kurdish villages were treated with chemical warfare agents from helicopters.

The village of Khaladzhba was destroyed from the air, five thousand people died from the nerve gas. After that, the general received the nickname Chemical Ali.

Iraqi Kurdistan

During Operation Desert Storm in 1991, when the forces of the world community attacked Saddam Hussein, Iraqi Kurds (and there are more than five million of them) raised an uprising that covered 95% of the territory of Iraqi Kurdistan. But Saddam crushed the uprising, and drove the Kurds into the mountains. When Iraqi forces again used chemical weapons, US President George W. Bush ordered an intervention.

On April 7, 1991, Operation Solace was launched to ensure the safety of Kurdish refugees. The Americans defined a "security zone" that Iraqi troops were forbidden to enter. In accordance with UN Security Council Resolution No. 688, a "free area" was created under the tutelage of the US military. There, in the north of Iraq, about three million Kurds settled. They elected their parliament and formed a government.

In September 2017, more than three million residents of Iraqi Kurdistan took part in a referendum and voted for the creation of an independent state. But neither Iraq nor any other country recognized the referendum. The Kurdish state remains unrecognized.

Mustafa Barzani's son, Masoud Barzani, ex-President of Iraqi Kurdistan, votes in elections to the Parliament of Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Reuters

“There are no Kurds in Turkey!”

Most Kurds in Turkey - at least 16 million. And half live in an underdeveloped southeastern region, engulfed in guerrilla warfare, which the authorities consider terrorism.

Ankara has always said that "neither the Kurdish nation nor the Kurdish language exists in Turkey, and the Kurds are part of the Turkic nation, the mountain Turks." The Kurdish language was banned. At the birth of a child, Turkish officials replaced the Kurdish name with a Turkish one.

In response, the Turkish Kurds formed the PKK on November 27, 1978. The goal is an independent state. The party has iron discipline and a strict hierarchy. Abdallah Ocalan became the leader of the party that adopted Marxist ideas and called on the Kurds to revolt. Both Kurds and Turks behaved equally cruelly. Kurdish militants carried out terrorist attacks in Turkish cities, sowing fear among the population. They attacked Turkish teachers, engineers, employees of state companies. Turkish regular troops staged punitive operations and cleansing of entire villages, the inhabitants of which were suspected of helping militants of the Kurdistan Workers' Party.

In 1980, after a military coup in Turkey, militant groups of Kurds led by Ocalan fled to Syria, where they were sheltered and allowed to establish their bases.

The states in which the Kurds live brutally suppress them. But willingly help other people's Kurds. For example, Iran helped the Iraqi Kurds because it was at enmity with Baghdad. And the Syrians favored the Turkish Kurds who fought against Turkey. Kurds also live in Syria - about four million. This is 15% of the population, but the Kurds were not considered a national minority, publications in the Kurdish language and distribution of works of national culture were prohibited. In a word, the Assad dynasty keeps its Kurds in a tight grip. And the Turkish Kurds were secretly helped, because the Assads love Turkish politicians even less than the Kurds.

But the Turkish defense minister said: we demand that Syria stop helping Kurdish terrorists. The chief of the general staff of the Turkish army spoke about the "undeclared war" and unveiled a plan to attack the Syrian troops. With the threat of war, Turkey forced Syria to back down and refuse to support the PKK. Abdallah Ocalan fled from Syria to Russia, counting on the traditional support of Moscow.

Asylum denied

In November 1998, the State Duma voted in favor of granting Ocalan political asylum. However, Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov opposed this. He believed that relations with Turkey were more important for the Russian government, and even more so, Moscow did not want to support the Kurdish separatists at the time of the military operation in Chechnya.

A Kurdish illegal immigrant family eats lunch sitting on the floor in the rest home. A.P. Chekhov. Photo: RIA Novosti

Equally unsuccessfully, the PKK leader sought asylum in Italy and Greece. In February 1999, the Turks arrested Ocalan.

Opinions were divided. Some considered him a terrorist, a criminal, they said that his hands were covered in blood and that he should be in the dock. Others called him the leader of the national liberation movement and asked him to take into account the plight of the Kurds. The Kurds themselves say that in the eyes of the people, Ocalan is the personification of the centuries-old dream of a strong leader. He was sentenced to death, which was commuted to life imprisonment.

The brutal war against the Kurds prevented the transformation of Turkey into a modern state and ruined the reputation of the Turkish military. But in 2013, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then prime minister, promised to give the Kurds more rights. In return, the imprisoned leader of the PKK, Ocalan, ordered his fighters to stop the armed struggle with Turkey, which had claimed more than forty thousand lives in three decades, and declared that equality in rights would be won exclusively by political means. Erdogan then yearned for the support of the Kurds in the elections.

But then events began in Syria. Islamic terrorists killed Yazidi Kurds. Kurdish detachments desperately resisted the jihad militants and played a significant role in this war. In Syria, torn by civil war, they won back the territory for the future state. But Turkey is determined to prevent the Syrian Kurds from creating - following the example of the Iraqi ones - their own state formation and intends to defeat the Kurdish detachments in the north-east of the country after the withdrawal of American troops.

Kurdish YPG in Iraq. Photo: Zuma\TASS

US national security adviser John Bolton said Washington will protect its Kurdish allies in Syria. Turkish President Erdogan, in response, refused to meet with him. All this means that the fighting in Syria will continue. And the Kurds will not soon find their own state.

The territory of historical Kurdistan is incredibly rich in natural resources, especially oil, but the Kurds live in poverty. They are offended when they are considered nomads, highlanders, pastoralists, deprived of an independent culture and national identity. In fact, say the Kurds, we are a people with a rich and diverse culture, although we are considered strangers everywhere and are forced to vegetate at the lowest rung of the social ladder. And why are we worse than the Turks, Arabs, Persians, other peoples?

The Kurds are convinced that they are left to the mercy of fate and can only rely on themselves. More precisely, the power of their weapons. They believe that only armed struggle will help them gain independence. Kurds are good warriors. But they are not at war with the faint-hearted Americans or Europeans who keep count of every death, but with the Turks, Iranians, Iraqis. Who will win this war of attrition?

The less attention the world pays to the Kurds, this persecuted people, the stronger the position of those who believe that only terror will force the world to pay attention to them and help them. Nothing more optimistic, unfortunately, is impossible to say.

Then there was a lot of things, in particular, many Turks and Arabs abandoned traditional Islam by swallowing the poisoned pill of Wahhabism, but the key to understanding the current situation is that for the West, since then, the Kurds have been a threat to the restoration of traditional Islam and a reminder that once they already expelled from the Middle East by a Kurd named Salladin.

Originally posted by matveychev_oleg at Who are the Kurds, why do they not have their own country and what do they want

The guest of the first broadcast was expert on the Middle East Taimur Dvidar. Abbas Juma talked to him about the Kurds. This is an ancient people, with a rich history and traditions, but without their own country. Who are they and what do they want?

"Kurdistan is when you look down at the clouds"

All and sundry in the world talk about freedoms, democracy, human rights and other delights of life, however, the most ancient ethnic group - the Kurds - still does not have the right to self-determination and state sovereignty. And they, by the way, are no less than 35 to 45 million people (according to various estimates). That is, five times more than the Jews in Israel. But if everyone is clear about the Jews and everything is written in the Bible, then who are the Kurds, where did they come from, what do they want and why are they treated so unfairly? - asked the expert Abbas Juma.

Taimur Dvidar replied that the mention of this people was first heard from 4 to 6 thousand years ago, and now representatives of this ethnic group are found everywhere.

I want to tell you about my impressions about Kurdistan and the Kurds in Iraq. I remember the people who live there for their warmth, kindness, responsiveness. The people are very clean. Kurdistan is when you look down at the clouds...

According to the expert, the Kurds throughout their history "undeservedly roamed":

Because they were forced to wander. They were expelled from the Persian side to the Iraqi side, from the Iraqi side to Syria, to Turkey. The largest part of Kurdistan is located in Turkey. And in terms of population - in Iraq. Kurds make up 12% of the Iraqi population. By the way, they had autonomy in Iraq back in 1970.

De juro. De facto - since 2006, - our radio host corrected.

De facto, nothing happened and it all turned into a rather bloody war, where both Persia and Russia helped the Kurds in the confrontation with Iraq, - Dvidar answered this.

“The Kurds had the opportunity to acquire a state”

The expert recalled that the civil war in Iraq between the Kurds and the Arabs "still happened because of the fact that autonomy was promised in 1970 by the Iraqi state, but, unfortunately, it did not happen and it all ended in mass destruction of people, after which the leaders Kurdish uprisings or confrontations dispersed to neighboring countries, and some to the United States.”

There was an opportunity, by the way, for the Kurds to acquire a homeland and a state. It was in 1920, under the Serbian treaty they had this opportunity. It was as if they received this territory, which included four states, modern four states, their territory was divided there - Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Persia, Iran, sorry. But Mr. Ataturk, the great Turkish leader, made a military maneuver and, in general, rewrote this treaty. As a result, the Kurds were left without Kurdistan. But what is typical. In Iraq, I remember, in the early 80s, the sign Kurdistan. And the word "Kurdistan". And it was normal, - the expert remembered.

Taimur Dvidar also noted that the Kurds have been treated throughout history as gypsies. But this, in his opinion, is absolutely unfair:

Undeserved treatment of them as gypsies. And all this pain of the Kurdish people, I feel it precisely in the fact that they are treated as gypsies. Why?

Iraqi Sinjar came under the control of the Kurds.
Photo: REUTERS

In general, it is a pity, of course, that they did not succeed in acquiring a state, but since we are now on the verge of redistribution of borders, I want to remind you that the borders of Turkey, Iraq, and Syria were formed in 1916 as a result of the Sykes-Picot Treaty. And now experts, political scientists have started talking almost unanimously about a certain revival of the Sykes-Picot agreement, Abbas Juma recalled.

The Kurdish issue is very acute in Turkey. You were in Iraq, you saw what Kurds are, that they do not pose a danger. This precedent - Iraqi Kurdistan - proved that the Kurds can coexist normally with those they are inside. Why Turkey? - asks the expert.

“They even unite with the bald devil, if only to free Raqqa”

Our radio host also reminded on the air that today the Kurds are fighting against ISIS more effectively than anyone else (an organization banned in Russia - ed. note). They freed Kobani and Sinjar.

And now here is such an alarming bell - they are uniting in a campaign against Raqqa with the Syrian Free Army. As the EPG guys tell me, we just don't have a choice. Because no one else is helping us. Why shouldn't Russia take the initiative? asked Abbas Juma.

Well, the Americans are helping them, let's not forget - and this is their main ally, - Taimur Dvidar reminded. - But at least they will unite with the bald devil, if only to free Raqqa, because Raqqa is still the main city of the Kurds in Syria. Syrian Free Army, I don't know why you react so strongly to it. We must not forget that in the regular Syrian army, 70,000 people deserted not out of fear of anything, but in revenge for their relatives... I was also in Syria.

You see, I just saw that these people - the FSA - are doing the same thing as ISIS, - said Abbas Juma.

The expert replied:

But this is not some kind of united group, this is a scattered militia. Small groups such as guerrilla units, they call themselves the Free Syrian Army. So they called themselves in order to somehow distinguish themselves. These are very small units, in terms of influence on the ground they are not particularly significant. They started uniting three weeks ago, after Russia fucked up so that no one seemed a little. And we saw in the north, in Aleppo, in particular, three units from the Free Syrian Army united…

Sinjar was under the control of the ISIS group banned in Russia for more than a year.
Photo: REUTERS

The Middle East specialist is sure: “These units, although they are small, successfully resist ISIS. Therefore, there is no better ally to resist this evil in the Middle East, anti-Islam, let's call it that, than the Syrians themselves.

"Kurds are warriors from God"

According to our radio host, "if Russia took some steps towards the Kurds, the Kurds would not mind." But why is Russia not doing this?

I fully agree with you. You are absolutely right. You know, I remembered the meaning of the word "Kurd". It also means the horseman-hero. And this is six thousand years ago, when, in general, horses were not particularly known. The Kurds used horses even then ... These are warrior people. They are warriors from God. When they were in alliance with the Sultan in the Ottoman Empire, even on the southern borders of Russia, we remember them from history, what kind of warriors they were. They sometimes provided services to Russia as well. People are very negotiable, they, even with a bald devil, but to liberate their land and protect their families ... You know, I am not an intelligence officer, I have little information now, I don’t know who interacts with whom, but for me, too, like for you, it is surprising why we do not see some kind of union between Russia and the Kurds? It is in opposition. It is quite possible that the Americans close this topic themselves.

Meanwhile, Taimur Dvidar recalled that "among ISIS, there are quite a few Kurds who are at war with their own people."

You can call them whatever you like, but in terms of the effectiveness of warfare, they are, unfortunately, quite effective. Let's see today or tomorrow what this war will result in. Unfortunately, now she has such a pattern that she turns into a global one. Taking into account the terrorist attacks that we saw, against the citizens of Russia, against the French. We do not know how our day will end today and what awaits us all together. Unfortunately, we have come very close to the tragedy and, I think, if we have always talked about the beginning of the third world war, which is already in general going on, now it is flaring up in a spiral every day stronger and stronger.

Any nation is going through a time of active wars and expansions. But there are tribes in which militancy and cruelty are an integral part of their culture. These are ideal warriors without fear and morality.

Maori

The name of the New Zealand tribe "Maori" means "ordinary", although, in truth, there is nothing ordinary about them. Even Charles Darwin, who happened to meet them during his journey on the Beagle, noted their cruelty, especially towards the whites (English), with whom they happened to fight for territories during the Maori wars.

The Maori are considered the indigenous people of New Zealand. Their ancestors sailed to the island approximately 2000-700 years ago from East Polynesia. Before the arrival of the British in the middle of the 19th century, they had no serious enemies, they had fun mainly with civil strife.

During this time, their unique customs, characteristic of many Polynesian tribes, were formed. For example, they cut off the heads of captured enemies and ate their bodies - this is how, according to their beliefs, the strength of the enemy passed to them. Unlike their neighbors, the Australian Aborigines, the Maori fought in two world wars.

Moreover, during the Second World War, they themselves insisted on the formation of their own 28th battalion. By the way, it is known that during the First World War they drove the enemy away with their combat dance “haku”, during an offensive operation on the Gallipoli Peninsula. This ritual was accompanied by warlike cries and scary faces, which literally discouraged the enemies and gave the Maori an advantage.

Gurkha

Another warlike people who also fought on the side of the British are the Nepalese Gurkhas. Even during colonial policy, the British classified them as the "most militant" peoples they had to face.

According to them, the Gurkhas were distinguished by aggressiveness in battle, courage, self-sufficiency, physical strength and a lower pain threshold. England itself had to surrender to the onslaught of their warriors, armed with nothing but knives.

Not surprisingly, as early as 1815, a broad campaign was launched to recruit Gurkha volunteers into the British army. Skillful fighters quickly found the glory of the best soldiers in the world.

They managed to take part in the suppression of the Sikh uprising, the Afghan, First, Second World Wars, as well as in the Falklands conflict. Today, the Gurkhas are still the elite fighters of the British army. They are all recruited in the same place - in Nepal. I must say, the competition for the selection is crazy - according to the modernarmy portal, there are 28,000 candidates for 200 places.

The British themselves admit that the Gurkhas are better soldiers than themselves. Maybe because they are more motivated. Although the Nepalese themselves argue, the point here is not at all about money. They are proud of their martial art and are always happy to put it into practice. Even if someone gives them a friendly pat on the shoulder, in their tradition it is considered an insult.

Dayaks

When some small peoples actively integrate into the modern world, others prefer to preserve traditions, even if they are far from the values ​​of humanism.

For example, a tribe of Dayaks from the island of Kalimantan, who have earned a terrible reputation as headhunters. What to do - you can become a man only by bringing the head of your enemy to the tribe. At least that was the case back in the 20th century. The Dayak people (in Malay - "pagan") is an ethnic group that unites the numerous peoples inhabiting the island of Kalimantan in Indonesia.

Among them: Ibans, Kayans, Modangs, Segai, Trings, Inihings, Longvais, Longhats, Otnadoms, Serai, Mardahiks, Ulu-Aiers. Some villages can only be reached today by boat.

The bloodthirsty rituals of the Dayaks and the hunting for human heads were officially stopped in the 19th century, when the local sultanate asked the Englishman Charles Brooke from the White Raja dynasty to somehow influence the people, who did not know any other way to become a man, except to cut off someone's head.

Having captured the most warlike leaders, he managed to set the Dayaks on a peaceful path with the “carrot and stick policy”. But people continued to disappear without a trace. The last bloody wave swept across the island in 1997-1999, when all the world agencies shouted about ritual cannibalism and the games of small Dayaks with human heads.

Kalmyks

Among the peoples of Russia, one of the most warlike are the Kalmyks, the descendants of the Western Mongols. Their self-name is translated as “breakaways”, which means Oirats who did not convert to Islam. Today, most of them live in the Republic of Kalmykia. Nomads are always more aggressive than farmers.

The ancestors of the Kalmyks, the Oirats, who lived in Dzungaria, were freedom-loving and warlike. Even Genghis Khan did not immediately manage to subdue them, for which he demanded the complete destruction of one of the tribes. Later, the Oirat warriors became part of the army of the great commander, and many of them intermarried with the Genghisides. Therefore, not without reason, some of the modern Kalmyks consider themselves descendants of Genghis Khan.

In the 17th century, the Oirats left Dzungaria, and, having made a huge transition, reached the Volga steppes. In 1641, Russia recognized the Kalmyk Khanate, and from now on, from the 17th century, the Kalmyks became permanent participants in the Russian army. It is said that the battle cry "hurrah" was once derived from the Kalmyk "uralan", which means "forward". They especially distinguished themselves in the Patriotic War of 1812. It was attended by 3 Kalmyk regiments, numbering more than three and a half thousand people. For the battle of Borodino alone, more than 260 Kalmyks were awarded the highest orders of Russia.

Kurds

Kurds, along with Arabs, Persians and Armenians, are one of the oldest peoples in the Middle East. They live in the ethno-geographic region of Kurdistan, which was divided among themselves by Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria after the First World War.

The language of the Kurds, according to scientists, belongs to the Iranian group. In religious terms, they do not have unity - among them there are Muslims, Jews and Christians. It is generally difficult for Kurds to agree with each other. E.V. Erikson, Doctor of Medical Sciences, noted in his work on ethnopsychology that the Kurds are a people merciless to the enemy and unreliable in friendship: “they respect only themselves and their elders. Their morality is generally very low, superstition is extremely great, and real religious feeling is extremely poorly developed. War is their direct innate need and absorbs all interests.

It is difficult to judge how applicable this thesis, written at the beginning of the 20th century, is today. But the fact that they never lived under their own centralized authority makes itself felt. According to Sandrine Alexi of the Kurdish University in Paris: “Every Kurd is a king on his mountain. Therefore, they quarrel with each other, conflicts arise often and easily.

But for all their uncompromising attitude towards each other, the Kurds dream of a centralized state. Today, the "Kurdish question" is one of the most acute in the Middle East. Numerous unrest in order to achieve autonomy and unite into one state have been going on since 1925. In 1992 to 1996, the Kurds waged a civil war in northern Iraq, and permanent uprisings still occur in Iran. In a word, the "question" hangs in the air. To date, the only state formation of Kurds with broad autonomy is Iraqi Kurdistan.